Optics

Transformed aerogels: From amorphous carbon to nanocrystalline diamond

By Eileen De Guire / June 1, 2011

Laser-heated diamond anvil cell allows very large hydrostatic pressure to be applied to amorphous carbon aerogels. Cavity dimensions are approximately 100–170 μm wide by 35 μm thick. Credit: LLNL. While…

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Energy Frontier Research Centers to showcase work on ‘grand challenges’

By / May 24, 2011

Credit: DOE The next few days should be fun for materials scientists and engineers. Tomorrow (May 25) begins the start of a three-day meeting where participants in the DOE’s 46…

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SRNL’s John Marra to address advanced materials lessons from Fukushima nuclear accident

By / May 6, 2011

Marra The ACerS Glass and Optical Materials Division is holding its annual meeting May 15-19 in Savannah, Ga., and I just learned that nuclear energy materials expert John Marra has…

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Materials stories that may also be of interest

By / April 22, 2011

Check ’em out: Toyota Announces finalists in ‘Ideas For Good’ challenge ‘Solar group buy’ program launched in California Novel bulk metallic glass nanowires boost fuel cell efficiency NC State researchers…

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Ceramic and glass business news from this week

By / April 1, 2011

Here’s what we are hearing (from press releases): Upgraded universal borescope from Schoelly Imaging offers modular advantage Schoelly Imaging Inc. announces an upgrade to its 4.0mm universal borescope, a modular borescope…

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Perovskite-based tunable superlens developed

By Eileen De Guire / March 30, 2011

Experimental setup shows an IR free-electron laser light source and perovskite superlens consisting of BiFeO3 and strontium titanate SrTiO3 layers. Imaged objects are strontium ruthenate patterns (orange) on a SrTiO3…

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New class of optical fiber developed at Penn State; ZnSe waveguide cores open infrared spectrum

By Eileen De Guire / March 16, 2011

a) Schematic of the HPCVD process, where a high pressure precursor mixture is configured to flow into a capillary (left). When the capillary is heated, well-developed annular films are deposited.…

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Video of the week: Corning’s ‘A Day Made of Glass’

By / March 15, 2011

(h/t to KB) Corning recently published a video, “A Day Made of Glass,” which the company says is its vision for the future with specialty glass. It’s an interesting video…

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LED disposal safety questioned

By / February 28, 2011

Credit: Piccolo Namek, Wikipedia. I really had intended to give the topic of LEDs a rest for a while. But while catching up on some reading, I came across a…

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J.P. Morgan holding LED manufacturer–investor parley

By / February 23, 2011

Credit: Intermatix. Just to round out my spat of recent posts on LEDs, I thought I’d mention that I came across discussion of the invitation-only J.P. Morgan LED General Lighting…

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